Gone through a few bottles of the first batch. First two were shared with family, and were pretty good. The third, however, had completely failed to bottle condition. The flavor was pretty much what it should have been, but there was no carbonation whatsoever. The cap *seemed* tight enough, but maybe it was one of the last ones sealed, when my hand was blistering and cramping from all the stupid plastic screw-on caps. Not sure. I was worried, but have had one or two since then that seemed ok.
In those, the carbonation bubbles were definitely getting smaller, but I didn't notice any major changes in flavor, or even slight changes for that matter! Still, not bad to drink, and I'm definitely thinking about the next batch!
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Monday, April 19, 2010
Batch #1: Kreidler's New Peculiar Update 4/19/10
This past weekend marked the first tastings of Kreidler's New Peculiar. Surprisingly drinkable, despite all the issues that went into the production! Proof positive that beer is a surprisingly resilient thing!
Poured off into pilsner glasses, each large bottle neatly filled both glasses. Color was a nice golden hue, with a HUGE head of foam (more on the first bottle than the second, probably for any number of reasons). Big malt flavor, relatively little hop character, though there was a nice, cheerful citrus character rounding things out. Definitely a nice "intro" beer, both for brewing and for introducing others to the joys of beer. Not so "light" as an American adjunct beer (Coors, Bud), but definitely lacking the aggressive hopping that serves to keep the extreme-beer crowd feeling nice and elitist. ;)
Carbonation bubbles were still fairly large, but as planned, I'm only chilling a few bottles at a time, to allow the rest to continue conditioning. Apparently, the bubbles will shrink, even as the flavors continue to evolve and improve. Is it a flavor of beer I would have gone out and bought a case? Probably not. Is it something I will happily drink while planning what to brew up next? Hells yes! (Something stout, methinks.)
As the man, Charlie Papazian has said: "Relax, don't worry, have a home brew!"
Poured off into pilsner glasses, each large bottle neatly filled both glasses. Color was a nice golden hue, with a HUGE head of foam (more on the first bottle than the second, probably for any number of reasons). Big malt flavor, relatively little hop character, though there was a nice, cheerful citrus character rounding things out. Definitely a nice "intro" beer, both for brewing and for introducing others to the joys of beer. Not so "light" as an American adjunct beer (Coors, Bud), but definitely lacking the aggressive hopping that serves to keep the extreme-beer crowd feeling nice and elitist. ;)
Carbonation bubbles were still fairly large, but as planned, I'm only chilling a few bottles at a time, to allow the rest to continue conditioning. Apparently, the bubbles will shrink, even as the flavors continue to evolve and improve. Is it a flavor of beer I would have gone out and bought a case? Probably not. Is it something I will happily drink while planning what to brew up next? Hells yes! (Something stout, methinks.)
As the man, Charlie Papazian has said: "Relax, don't worry, have a home brew!"
Friday, April 16, 2010
Batch #1: Kreidler's New Peculiar 04-16-10
Well, its been a little over two weeks since bottling. I'm planning on throwing a few bottles in the fridge overnight and enjoying them tomorrow...provided they are at all enjoyable. Going to keep going in that vein, only chilling them when needed, to allow the others to continue bottle conditioning for as long as possible, since as soon as they get fridged, that process pretty much stops. So, starting tomorrow or Sunday... here goes!
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Batch #1: Kreidler's New Peculiar Update #6: Bottled!
OK, this actually comes a few days late. Taking advantage of a random Thursday off and a house all to myself, I actually managed to finally get the first batch bottled. It would have to have been on April 1st, wouldn't it? Now rethinking the New Peculiar name to something to do with that. Whatever...still just gonna be strong Fosters.
So, put on my brand new Avery Brewing Company hat, cranked up the Skankaholics Unanimous, took one last hydrometer reading, (still around 1.011-ish) and began bottling my Cooper's microbrew. All in all, it was a fairly smooth process. Rinsing the bottles for their first use was the most annoyingly time consuming, and screwing on all the stupid plastic bottle-caps gave me a blister on the inside of my thumb that's still pissing me off (24 bottles...imagine if I had done the right amount of water in the fermenter and had to do the final 6 bottles...eesh). The 'little bottler' included with the kit, which attaches to the spigot and only (ha!) allows the beer to flow when the bottom of the bottle pushes up on a simple plunger mechanism, worked fairly well. Certainly better than not having it, but not as good as being able to actually stop without having to turn off the tap each time. Ah well.
Cleaning out the fermenter was fairly painless....just filled the thing up with water for awhile to loosen up the crust from the fermentation foam, which came off fairly easily. Didn't kill myself *too* bad, since the whole shebang is gonna need to be sterilized for the next batch anyways. Stored all the extra parts in the fermenter, then packed it back in the box to mitigate anything getting into it (it is kept about 10 feet from 3 actively used litter boxes, so I need to keep my own terrors of contamination at bay here!)
So, the beer should be bottle conditioned in 1-2 weeks time (the 15th, according to the calendar), and drinkable anytime after that. So, I'll let it do it's thing for now, and will most likely be sharing the results at whatever family or friend gathering hits first after that. We shall see!
So, put on my brand new Avery Brewing Company hat, cranked up the Skankaholics Unanimous, took one last hydrometer reading, (still around 1.011-ish) and began bottling my Cooper's microbrew. All in all, it was a fairly smooth process. Rinsing the bottles for their first use was the most annoyingly time consuming, and screwing on all the stupid plastic bottle-caps gave me a blister on the inside of my thumb that's still pissing me off (24 bottles...imagine if I had done the right amount of water in the fermenter and had to do the final 6 bottles...eesh). The 'little bottler' included with the kit, which attaches to the spigot and only (ha!) allows the beer to flow when the bottom of the bottle pushes up on a simple plunger mechanism, worked fairly well. Certainly better than not having it, but not as good as being able to actually stop without having to turn off the tap each time. Ah well.
Cleaning out the fermenter was fairly painless....just filled the thing up with water for awhile to loosen up the crust from the fermentation foam, which came off fairly easily. Didn't kill myself *too* bad, since the whole shebang is gonna need to be sterilized for the next batch anyways. Stored all the extra parts in the fermenter, then packed it back in the box to mitigate anything getting into it (it is kept about 10 feet from 3 actively used litter boxes, so I need to keep my own terrors of contamination at bay here!)
So, the beer should be bottle conditioned in 1-2 weeks time (the 15th, according to the calendar), and drinkable anytime after that. So, I'll let it do it's thing for now, and will most likely be sharing the results at whatever family or friend gathering hits first after that. We shall see!
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